Infamous Second Son: Powerful

The lively Second Son clearly has ambitions to be more serious than its Infamous PS3 predecessors, but even with the deeper political undercurrent it’s still a comic book romp at heart. And it’s lots of fun.

The new protagonist Delsin is not just another teenager hoodlum with a spray can. He can absorb the powers of other superhuman simply by touching them.

Despite a dull opening, Delsin quickly learns thrilling new superpowers and enjoys using them a lot more than his dour predecessor Cole McGrath. It’s not long before players are causing chaos in a breathtaking downtown Seattle in the fight against the oppressive Department of Unified Protection for mutant rights.

The combat against the intelligent enemy forces can be thrilling as you creatively utilise your interesting and varied powers to both attack and evade. For example, smoke powers enable Delsin to use vents to dive into at the base of a building and hurtle out from the roof, taking shots at opponents as you glide down to a nearby rooftop.

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There’s terrific freedom to tackle situations differently, and many opportunities to use Delsin’s frenetic speed and climbing abilities. Unleashing the devastating “Karma Bombs” is also a real buzz.

The story touches on interesting issues of whether security is worth the cost of freedom, and the fear of the unknown, yet is underdeveloped.

Moral choices offer simplistic binary decisions between the altruistic hero or powerful villain, but don’t impact the action or story considerably.

Despite the open world there’s also not much in the way of interesting diversions, although it’s also mercifully free of unwanted padding.

Fortunately, just concentrating on the spectacular action is more than sufficient to have a great time, and as you are granted more and more skills it’s hard not to share Delsin’s enthusiasm for his wonderful powers.

31 comments so far

After finishing a good playthrough of Second Son, I'm taking a brief hiatus before coming back for a more difficult evil run. I'm still dipping in to work on the Paper Trail dlc, which certainly adds to the longevity of the game.

Other than that, had a crack at Mercenary Kings on PS4 (haven't made my mind up on this one yet), Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on Vita and a fair amount of Magic 2014 (plays rather nice on a Nexus 7).

A wet weekend here in Sydney gave me a good excuse to co-op some more Lego Marvel on the PS4 with my son. Not sure who's loving it more, him or me. The campaign is varied (for a Lego game), there are so many side missions to entertain, the humour is spot on and more importantly, so many fantastic characters to unlock... many with unique animations and abilities. Jumping off the heli-carrier never gets old!

Commenter

Scubafinch

Location

The Rocks

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 8:18AM

I haven't played the original infamous, I'll have to pick it up one day and have a look. This does look interesting though.

I didn't get much gaming time on the weekend but saw that FTL now has an advanced edition! Downloaded and played for a bit, I'll have to check what all the changes are but is still fun.

Also installed a new CPU cooler on the PC which is now running a lot cooler and quieter.

Commenter

Knotpossible

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 8:47AM

Do you think FTL would work on an iPad? I noticed that with the release of the advanced edition, they've also done a version for iOS... just wondering whether I should buy it.

Commenter

Swordfactor

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 9:42AM

Should be very touch friendly. You click for everything. The only thing I used a keyboard for was the pause button. Clicking on specific crew members & drawing lines for laser fire would get frustrating on a phone, but the pad should have big enough image for it to work

Commenter

Dark Wolfe

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 10:18AM

Yeah, I tended to pause every time I wanted to issue orders and only unpause to watch the action unfold, keeping an eye for any indicator that I needed to pause again. Should be real easy to manage that on a touch device. I would play it a whole lot more during my commute than I do at home, I'd wager.

Commenter

Lucid Fugue

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 10:41AM

Personally I'd need to the larger screen of a pad to play on and as long as you can quickly pause you should be right.

It's a great game and one I might have to get for my sons iPad so I can borrow it for a quick game.

Anyone who doesn't have it should get it!

Commenter

Knotpossible

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 11:25AM

I spent a bit more time playing through Infamous over the weekend - don't want to rush through it, as I don't have another PS4 game yet :P - I will say that i feel quite stupid as I've only just realised that there is a second 'island' to explore as well... Didn't realise that last week!

I also spent some time with COD Ghosts multiplayer (had to plug the PS3 back in to use the Media playback stuff from my external drive - is that ever getting 'fixed' on the PS4?)

Side note - went and saw the Lego Movie on saturday night - if you haven't seen it, go... now...

Commenter

beatdan

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 8:50AM

I got my Artemis Bow Atma in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It annoyed many of my guild as I was able to get it fairly quickly. I still haven't got the first book to upgrade it. During my off time in the game I've been farming the atmas again so I can upgrade my lance. We tried some Turn 5 again, and we're starting to get consistent with the Conflag stage, so that's a plus. I tried some Titan Extreme as well. That was interesting to say the least. I also got my Black Mage to level 40 and my Bard is currently at item level 93.

I played Titanfall on and off during the week. My friends and I have started to experience lag in the game which is annoying, even though our ping is pretty decent. I'm finding the whole argument over the smart pistol pretty funny.

Played a bit of Final Fantasy X on the Vita, but not much as I'm up to the Macalania Woods.

My time instead went to Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright. I finished the game and wow, what an experience. If you're a fan of either series you will really enjoy this game. The puzzles and trials are made easier by Hint Coins, but the mechanics of the game are really well done. I quite liked the interaction between the two sets of characters as well.

Commenter

Raito

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 9:07AM

Despite having The Walking Dead S2E2 waiting for me to play, I downloaded Hearthstone instead and started playing that. I stuck with just playing in practice mode as the mage while I got the hang of the mechanics and the cards, and really enjoyed myself. I can see how it could be easily addictive, really catering to that "one more game" experience. Couldn't beat the warrior just yet, but unlocked all of the rest of the classes and have started toying with creating custom decks as well. I have utterly no intention of actually spending any money in the shop, I'll just keep going as free to play, and if I get destroyed once I go online and play human opponents, oh well.

Commenter

Swordfactor

Date and time

April 07, 2014, 9:07AM

Hearthstones matchmaking tries to find you a "worthy opponent" & so far it works for me. Also haven't dropped a cent & didn't see anyone with cards from boosters till I'd opened some myself. PvP also has casual not only ranked but neither are intimidating at all. Also you get better rewards for stepping out of the practice pool so get in there son